ABSTRACT
Football is the most popular team sport in Finland in terms of the number of players. The international success of national teams in the 2000s increased the visibility but did not affect the attendance of league games. Football has not had the same kind of status as a national sport as in many other countries. Football arrived with English seamen in the late 19th century. Although the Football Association of Finland (FAF) was founded in 1907 and Finland engaged in international football in the 1912 Olympic Games, football did not become a leading sport. Between the World Wars, football had to compete with Finnish baseball (pesäpallo). Football was an amateur sport of the cities and urban areas and spread to the countryside only slowly. In the 1970s, the commercial sector began to gain relevance in the sport. The national ice hockey league was founded in 1975. In football, however, the men's league did not start until 1990 and the women's league was established in 2006, but even today, elite football is characterised by semi-professionalism. On the other hand, the growing number of international games as well as increasing player migration have bound Finland closer to the global football community.
